Save a document in Word

www.office.com/setup Blogs: You can use the Save and Save As commands to store your work, and you can adjust the settings that Microsoft Office Word uses to save your documents.

The way that you save a document and the format that you save it in depends on how you plan to use the document. For example, if the document is for your own use and you never expect to open it in a previous version of Microsoft Office Word, the simplest way to save it is to use the Save command, using all the default settings.

However, if you are posting the document for others to open, if people reading your document are using software other than Microsoft Office Word, or if you intend to open the document on another computer or mobile device, you need to choose how and where you want to save the document.

If you commonly save documents in a particular place or format, you can adjust settings so that Word defaults to these choices.

Word saves the document in a default location. To save the document in a different location, select another folder or location.

Save an existing document as a new document (Save As)

To prevent overwriting an existing document, use the Save As command to create a copy of the existing document with a new name. You might want to do this, for example, when you have a form letter, lease document or any other situation where an existing document will provide all the basic content for a new document (and you don’t want to lose the existing document).

Open the document that you want to use as the basis for the new document.

Click File, and then click Save As.

Type a name for the document, and then click Save.

Word saves the document in a default location.

To save the document in a different location, click another folder or location in the Save As dialog box.

Edit the document the way that you want.

Save a document so that it can be opened in a previous version of Word

If you save your document in the default file format in Microsoft Office Word 2007, Word 2010, Word 2013 and Word 2016, users of previous versions of Word must install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats to open the document. Alternatively, you can save the document in a format that can be opened directly in previous versions of Word — but formatting and layout that depend on new features in Microsoft Office Word 2007, Word 2010, Word 2013 or Word 2016 will not be available in the previous version of Word.

Click File, and then click Save As.

Click Word 97–2003 Format.

Type a name for the document, and then click Save.

Save a document in alternative file formats

If you are creating a document for others you can make them readable and not editable, or you can make them readable and editable. If you want a document to be readable but not editable, save the document as a PDF or XPS file, or save it as a Web page. If you want your document to be readable and editable, but prefer a file format other than .docx or .doc, you can use formats such as, plain text (.txt), Rich Text Format (.rtf) and OpenDocument Text (.odt).

PDF and XPS — PDF and XPS are formats that people can read in widely available viewing software. These formats preserve the page layout of the document.

Web pages — Web pages are displayed in a Web browser. This format does not preserve the page layout of your document. As someone resizes the browser window, the layout of the document changes. You can save the document as a conventional Web page (HTML format) or as a single-file Web page (MHTML format). With HTML format, any supporting files (such as images) are stored in a separate folder that is associated with the document. With MHTML format, all supporting files are stored together with the document in one file.